Legacy of Early Anthropogenic Effects on Recent Lake Eutrophication
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Anthropocene 24 (2018) 72–87 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Anthropocene journa l homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ancene Legacy of early anthropogenic effects on recent lake eutrophication (Lake Bénit, northern French Alps) a,b, c c c Manon Bajard *, David Etienne , Sébastien Quinsac , Etienne Dambrine , b c c b Pierre Sabatier , Victor Frossard , Jérémie Gaillard , Anne-Lise Develle , b b c Jérôme Poulenard , Fabien Arnaud , Jean-Marcel Dorioz a E.A. 6293 GeHCO, University of Tours, 37000 Tours, France b Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, EDYTEM, 73000 Chambéry, France c UMR INRA 42 CARRTEL, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, 73376 Le Bourget-du-Lac, France A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Mountain lakes are integrated sentinels of changes in the terrestrial environment, where these changes Received 4 June 2018 threaten the quality of the ecosystem services these lakes provide, including high biodiversity, economic Received in revised form 22 November 2018 and leisure activities. Few evidentiary records exist of the long-term relationships between human Accepted 23 November 2018 pressure and observed impacts. Multiproxy analyses of the Lake Bénit sediment sequence, including Available online 28 November 2018 dating, grain-size, geochemistry, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and chironomid assemblage reconstructions, allowed reconstruction of past environmental evolution and lake trophic changes. Keywords: Combined with soil analyses of the catchment, these data provide a record of the relationships between Phosphorus Grazing human activities and the lake-catchment ecosystem, and show the effect of inundation of the shore previously used as pasture. From 2100 to 110 0 yrs cal. BP, the catchment was forested. During the Middle Water-level fluctuation Lake sediment Ages, grazing deforested the catchment, triggering an increase in erosion and a change in sediment Soil sources. The lake remained oligotrophic over most of the last millennia. The trophic state changed Erosion abruptly in the 20th century with intensification and multiplication of tourist activities in the catchment, i.e., fishing, hiking, while pastoral activities decreased. The sudden eutrophication coincides with an artificial increase of the lake water level in AD 1964 to improve fishing activities. A release of phosphorus (P) from the flooded soils was observed, which may be responsible for the current eutrophication. One thousand years of grazing practices would have led to the observed P concentrations in the soils of the lake shore, transferred by the cattle to this area. Our study highlights the combined effects of past and recent activities on the current eutrophication process, and the legacy of both soils and early anthropogenic activities. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction the quality of water and recreation areas). The intense use of these services may disrupt their functioning and harm life. Understanding the effects of past activities on both the current Lacustrine ecosystems are very sensitive to environmental status/structure of an ecosystem and its functioning is challenging changes, especially in mountains and boreal areas where human but necessary to ensure the sustainability of the “Earth critical activities and climate change appear to be key factors in the zone” and restore damaged ecosystems (Reed-Andersen et al., disruption of these ecosystems (Rogora et al., 2003; Brisset et al., 2000; Costanza et al., 2007; Arnaud et al., 2016; Dubois et al., 2013; Bajard et al., 2017a). Lakes are considered to be integrated 2018). Ecosystems of the critical zone (i.e., where human societies sentinels of local and global environmental changes, as they develop at the interface between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, accumulate both the direct effects of environmental forcing factors biosphere and geosphere), such as mountain lake environments, on the lake itself and those on its watershed (Carpenter et al., 2007; provide services for life (e.g., food supply, climate regulation and Williamson et al., 2008; Adrian et al., 2009; Schindler, 2009). The morphometric attributes (e.g., shape, depth) of lakes, which determine their oxygenation, especially in benthic areas, are very sensitive to energy inputs (thermal regimes and runoff), and the * Corresponding author at: E.A. 6293 GeHCO, University of Tours, 37000 Tours, France. inputs from the catchment are regulated by the same hydrody- E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Bajard). namic processes. They control trophic states of lakes, especially https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2018.11.005 2213-3054/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. M. Bajard et al. / Anthropocene 24 (2018) 72–87 73 through nutrients inputs. In this context, the littoral zone appears human activities and their consequences for soil erosion related to to be a key factor in the relationship between the effects on the forest clearing and cattle or sheep grazing since the early Neolithic catchment and those on the trophic web. The sensitivity of lakes to period in the French Alps (e.g., Giguet-Covex et al., 2011, 2014, disruption is also the consequence of the hydrological character- Arnaud et al., 2012, 2016; Brisset et al., 2012; Simonneau et al., istics of aquatic ecosystems, such as rapid overturn, mixing and 2013). Lake sediments allow us to reconstruct changes in the lake resistance, as well as the adaptation of aquatic communities to trophic status. The analysis of the geochemical P contents, of modifications of their environment. diatoms or chironomid assemblages from lake sediments is used as Eutrophication is one of the most important threat to tracers of nutrient inputs and oxygenation. freshwater ecosystems due to the degradation of water quality, We focused on Lake Bénit (1450 m a.s.l.), which is located in the and thus the quality of the entire ecosystem, due to the potential subalpine belt in the western French pre-Alps and has been loss of habitats and biodiversity and other associated ecosystem identified by a local limnological survey as a “lake to protect” services (Dudgeon et al., 2006; Davidson and Jeppesen, 2013). (Druart et al., 1999) due to its eutrophication processes. The lake Eutrophication can be a natural process describing an increase in catchment includes both rocky slopes and pastures that are primary production as a result of an increase in nutrient inputs. currently partly recolonized by trees (mainly spruce) and shrubs This process occurs naturally with the gradual filling of lakes, (Rosa sp.) The spot is highly frequented by hikers and anglers in ponds and other water reservoirs, or in the case of drying and lake summer. Therefore, a summer bar was established in CE 1952, and level decrease, in response to climate change. Eutrophication can the water lake level was intentionally increased in CE 1964. These also result from excessive anthropic inputs of nutrients such as recent changes in anthropic pressures applied on the lake- nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) which increase the primary catchment system have made this area an ideal location for our production (Carpenter et al., 1995; Correll, 1998; Bennett et al., study to (i) reconstruct the past landscape evolution associated 2001; Jenny et al., 2013; Pinay et al., 2017) and so-called “human with human activities over the last millennia, (ii) identify the induced-eutrophication” or “cultural eutrophication” (Schindler, sources of sediments and erosion dynamics and (iii) understand 2012). In lakes, eutrophication is almost always induced by an the links between past and present human activities and the excess of phosphorous that is generally provided by an external trophic state of the lake. load from the watershed (Schindler et al., 1995; Schindler, 2012) and often increases suddenly (i.e., within a few years). 2. Material and methods External loads causing eutrophication often result from human activities that modify the natural biogeochemical cycling of 2.1. Study site nutrients within lake watersheds and tend to increase the transfer from the watershed to the lake (e.g., Vitousek, 1997; Smith et al., Lake Bénit (1450 m a.s.l.) is located in the western Alps in the 1999). Agriculture, and even less extensive pastoral activities, are Bargy massif and is part of Marnaz and Mont-Saxonnex villages. It mainly associated with the redistribution of nutrients in soils. is located between Annecy and Geneva on the left side of the Arve Grazing can produce strong heterogeneities in soil nutrients, Valley (Fig. 1-A). The lake, which is of glacial origin, is delimited concentrating N and P through droppings in small areas such as flat by a limestone cliff of Cretaceous age in the south that rises up to resting places, near water, or in milking places within a few 2230 m a.s.l. and by a Würm moraine ridge in the west that rises centuries (Bennett et al., 2001; Jewell et al., 2007; Williams and up to 1570 m a.s.l. (Fig. 1-B). The surface area of the lake is 0.04 2 Haynes, 1990). This change in the spatial pattern of soil nutrients km , and its maximum depth reaches 8.7 m (Sesiano, 1993). The can contribute to an increase in the fluxes transferred to surface lake is fed by four springs flowing through the moraine and the 2 waters if these enriched source areas are connected to surface base of the scree. It drains a catchment area of 0.9 km (Druart waters. Pastoralism has been present for millennia in the Alps, et al., 1999). A flysch area composed of schists, sandstones and from lowlands to subalpine areas, exerting long-term effects on limestones of Nummulitic age crops out between the Cretaceous ecosystems, such as changes in vegetation and soil (Giguet-Covex limestone cliff and the moraine ridge as gullies (Sesiano and et al., 2014; Pini et al., 2017; Bajard et al., 2017b). Soils have a Muller, 1986). The flysch area is a flat herbaceous zone that is memory, i.e., they recorded information of their evolution and accentuated and gullied upstream (Fig.